Marketed as the first live-action film without human beings on screen, The Dark Crystal was touted as “a showcase for cutting-edge animatronics.” Which it most certainly was! It contained some of the most groundbreaking technology in both hands and facial expressions that Henson and company ever put together. Really great stuff!)Īnd then there’s the puppets themselves. I had one of his art books growing up and never tired of flipping around it. (His illustrations are truly amazing, by the way. Known for his elaborate and stunning art of faeries, dwarfs, and other woodland creatures, Froud brought an otherworldly vibe to the vision shared by Henson and Oz. Because building an entire fantasy world like this one would take a lot more than 25 pages! It was at this point that Jim Henson pulled in illustrator Brian Froud to work on designs for the puppets. Once a lot of the small changes (mostly names) happened from Henson’s original story, the actual refining process of the plot started. As the story evolved, philosophical elements from Jane Roberts’s Seth Material began to form the base of the story - especially where Aughra and the urRu (aka, The Mystics) were concerned. Like, the land was originally called Mithra, which was later shortened to what we know it as today: Thra.
Among a few other, smaller things that would be adapted, but not thrown out. Including the epic quest, three main races of very distinctly different creatures, the unification of two of those races, and the Crystal itself. And I, for one, would love to read it - even if it’s messy.Īs the jumping off point for the film, The Crystal included some major elements that would remain. As a 25-page story that Henson wrote and shared with his cohorts, The Crystal held all the eventual plot tidings of the final film. Lubin and Henson’s own short-lived, but recurring, SNL sketch, The Land of Gorch, that served as major inspiration points for The Crystal. And it was a mix of an illustrated edition of Lewis Carroll’s poetry by Leonard B. Unique in this way, every creature in The Dark Crystal is a puppet, created and operated by the great people at Jim Henson’s Creature Shop. Thra, itself, is a world with no humans, unlike many of the stories that Jim Henson and company set out to tell throughout his career, and even long after. A journey that they succeed at, though the future of Thra remains unknown to us. Within a tight 93 minutes, the general audience was transported to the dying land of Thra and introduced to the last living Gelflings, who go on an epic journey to save their world. Directed by Jim Henson and Frank Oz, with a script by David Odell, The Dark Crystal is burned into the brains of many millenials - myself included. Which is how, in 1982, we saw the theatrical release of The Dark Crystal. Given the stories that he set out to tell in the 1970s and 1980s, it’s deeply unsurprising that Jim Henson apparently thought it was unhealthy for children to never be afraid. There’s a franchise to build out here, for sure, but it won’t be done at Netflix, if at all.By Emily Maesar, Associate Editor, TVJawn It even landed a turn-based strategy RPG game.
The show was met with good reviews when it landed, and the series, which told the story of how the Crystal of Truth was damaged and darkness was beginning to spread over the land of Thra, was received well by fans. But it most likely failed to meet its cost-benefit analysis that guides all its programming. Netflix, of course, does not release viewership numbers aside from its top 10 movies, so it’s hard to tell just why The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance was canceled. It may help that the show just won a Creative Arts Emmy for Outstanding Children’s Programming, but aside from Disney, not many streamers have the deep pockets for a riskier venture like this one.
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The Jim Henson Company could theoretically shop the series around now that Netflix has dropped it (contractual agreements not withstanding), but it could be a hard sell given the big-name cast, fantasy premise, and truly ambitious combination of puppeteering and CGI effects involved in it. We know fans are eager to learn how this chapter of The Dark Crystal saga concludes and we’ll look for ways to tell that story in the future.” Lisa Henson, the executive producer for the series and daughter of Jim Henson, confirmed the cancellation, saying, “We can confirm that there will not be an additional season of The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance. The series was a prequel to Jim Henson’s classic film The Dark Crystal that was met with plenty of cultural clout when it launched, but it evidently didn’t garner enough viewership to warrant its budget. Netflix has officially canceled The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance. Time to pack away your childhood nightmares of Skeksis once again.
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